Chapter 192: Rabies

Tang Huai deliberately left Beard Feng hanging and posted an announcement directly:

"Lords, if you spot any signs of pangolin activity in your territories, please let me know. For any useful lead, the Sufeng Squad will pay at least twenty jin of Yellow-Lamp Wheat as thanks."

Beard Feng snorted. "Without even confirming whether those scales came from the two you lost, you dared to kick up a fuss all the way to the Base Commander's office and make our squad compensate you for your losses. The Sufeng Squad sure throws its weight around."

Tang Huai also felt Tang Zhengsu had been rash about that matter. But Beard Feng had come picking a fight right at his door, so of course Tang Huai had to speak up for the Sufeng Squad — he was still eating off the Sufeng Squad's rice bowl, after all. "There aren't any native pangolins anywhere near our territory. Is it wrong for us to reasonably suspect? Besides, in the end it wasn't you paying us — we paid you three hundred thousand!"

Beard Feng shot back, "Who told you to sneak into our training base? I didn't blow your people's heads off on the spot, and that was already me giving you face. Don't be ungrateful."

Tang Huai cursed back, "Who's being ungrateful? Even by your own daylight-robbery rate of four thousand per person, we should only owe you two hundred and fifty thousand. What gives you the right to demand three hundred thousand?"

Beard Feng gloated, "If you want to know why, go ask your squad leader. If he's willing to pay, there's a reason he has to."

Tang Huai started getting sarcastic. "Heh… you don't know the reason, do you? What, you — the main mission squad leader — have already been sidelined into a farmer?"

Beard Feng snorted. "Whether I'm sidelined or not isn't something a member who's always been on the squad's fringe like you can judge."

Xia Qing stroked Sheep Boss's wool and sighed, "Boss, Beard Feng's mouth is really vicious."

Tang Huai, who had always been on the squad's fringe, was indeed stung. "Hu Madman, get out here! I'm going to fight you one-on-one!"

Beard Feng chuckled, "Fight what? Digging bugs? I concede — that skill, I really can't beat you at it."

Xia Qing……

Tang Huai snorted, "Glad you know it."

Xia Qing……

Could Tang Huai not tell Beard Feng was mocking him?

Just as Xia Qing thought the two men's quarrel for the day was over, Tang Huai actually swung the spear toward the Hazard Investigation Squad. "In my opinion, for our squad's pangolins going missing, Captain Tan has to bear the main responsibility."

Before anyone else could respond, Tang Zhengpo cut his son off. "A-Huai, come back and eat."

"Okay." Tang Huai answered, then kept pressing the Hazard Investigation Squad. "Ultrasonic attack is a method with an extremely wide blast radius and extremely strong destructive power. Per base regulations, before using it, everyone within the blast radius must be notified — including the squads on missions. If Captain Tan had followed procedure, our squad would have received the notice and prepared accordingly, and the pangolins wouldn't have gone missing."

Beard Feng started cursing. "Did you catch rabies? Biting everyone you see! When your squad came here to carry out a mission, did you notify Captain Tan?"

Tang Huai countered, "How do you know we didn't notify him?"

Su Ming of the Hazard Investigation Squad spoke up. "On August 3rd and the three days before that, the Hazard Investigation Squad received no notice of any squad carrying out a mission in the Evolution Forest near Territories 1 through 28."

Tang Huai still wouldn't let up. "Even if we didn't notify you, shouldn't you have reported to the base leadership before using ultrasonic attack?"

Now Xia Qing understood. Tang Huai's rabies today wasn't about biting the Green Dragon Squad — it was about tearing into the Hazard Investigation Squad.

What did he mean by this?

Or rather, was this Tang Huai's idea, or the Sufeng Squad's?

Su Ming of the Hazard Investigation Squad understood too, and replied stiffly, "If you have a complaint about our investigation squad, you can file an appeal upward."

Tang Huai's temper only got worse. "Of course I'm filing a complaint. If you lot hadn't been so slow at resolving the crisis, why would ultrasonic attack have been deployed? Don't you know how dangerous ultrasonic attack is? I was wearing a high-grade protective mask, and I still got shaken up so badly I felt awful for half a month! Our squad's pangolins got startled and ran off! It's all because you're incompetent! If you can't do the job, hurry up and swap in a squad with a real sharpshooter. If we had a real sharpshooter here, we absolutely wouldn't have suffered such a huge loss."

The Tang family wanted to pull Captain Tan Junjie's investigation squad and replace it with their own people? Xia Qing frowned.

Sick Wolf, who had finally caught up to Xia Qing and Sheep Boss and was squatting beside Sheep Boss panting with its tongue out to cool down, sensed the shift in Xia Qing's mood and closed its mouth to look at her.

Xia Qing reached past Sheep Boss and smoothed the clean but sparse fur on Sick Wolf, soothing it gently. "It's nothing. You just rest."

Apart from the lords of Territories 2 and 9, none of the others wanted to swap out Captain Tan Junjie's earnest and responsible squad. They were all waiting for Beard Feng to curse back, so they could pile on after him.

They hadn't expected that, before Beard Feng could even open his mouth, an unexpected person came online.

Hui-3 Base's top sharpshooter, Luo Pei, replied to Tang Huai, "This isn't Captain Tan's fault — it's mine. I'm the one who suggested to the Base Commander that we pull in sharpshooters from the troops and squads to form Hui-3's First Defense Line."

Brother Luo!

Xia Qing immediately pressed the button. "If the First Defense Line formed by the sharpshooters hadn't killed off most of the evolved raptors, our base and territories would have suffered far greater losses than now."

"Exactly!" Shi Du jumped online right after. "If Captain Tan hadn't commanded so well, we couldn't have held off the attack of over two hundred evolved raptors."

"Right." Qi Fu also made his stance clear — only one word, but firm.

Before the other lords could chime in, and before Tang Huai could cut in, a voice sounded in the lord channel that everyone thought of several times a day.

"It's not Tan Junjie's fault, and it's not Luo Pei's fault — it's mine. The laser cannon in my territory didn't have enough firepower; it didn't blast the flock of birds to bits in one shot, and that caused the Sufeng Squad to lose two of their tamed beasts, and caused the people of Territory 2 to feel awful for half a month. Tang Huai, I'm truly sorry. Go tell Tang Zhengsu for me — say those two pangolins, I'll pay you double, Zhang San. Tell him to give me a price as soon as he can."

Zhang San, lord of Territory 7, who had been away from his territory for twenty days, had also returned!

Die-hard fan Xia Qing was first to deliver a welcome. "Welcome back to your territory, Third Brother."

"Third Brother, you're finally back, sir!" Zhao Ze grabbed second place.

The lord channel erupted. In Territory 12, Tang Huai broke into a sweat and panicked. "Dad, what do we do?"

Tang Zhengpo poured boiling water over the teapot and teacups, unhurriedly instructing, "Reply to Zhang San. Say you didn't mean it that way."

Tang Huai pulled a long face. "He's got to believe it! We're done for. We only just managed to ease things with Third Brother, and now they're stiff again."

Tang Heng, who was sitting at the table waiting for tea, laughed. "It's Territory 2's relationship with Third Brother that's gone stiff. Dad and I aren't affected. Just reply to him like that — any smart person will understand what's going on."